New Delhi: The Hawala firm and its Goa-based employee, named by the Enforcement Directorate in its case against the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and its director Prateek Jain, have also been previously accused of facilitating cash transfers to the Aam Aadmi Party in Goa ahead of the 2022 assembly elections.
In the writ petition filed before the Calcutta High Court Friday, the agency submitted that I-PAC received Rs 20 crore of the proceeds of crime from the illegal coal syndicate of West Bengal through the firm R. Kanti Lal in Kolkata and its employee in Goa, Sagar Patel, who admitted to having facilitated the funds transfer to firms managing events for I-PAC in Goa around 2021-22. I-PAC has been providing political consultancy services to Trinamool Congress since 2019.
The premises of R. Kanti Lal were among the locations raided by the ED in Kolkata Thursday.
The same firm and Patel were earlier accused by both the Central Bureau of Investigation and ED of helping the AAP and linked firms transfer Rs 45 crore in funds before the Goa assembly elections. In that case too, the funds were channelled through Patel, both agencies had alleged after their respective investigations in the Delhi excise policy case.
These funds, the agencies had claimed, were part of bribes paid by the “South Group” of the liquor cartel as part of the conspiracy allegedly hatched by the AAP leadership, including party convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
According to the agencies, a group of politicians and businessmen from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, including Telugu Desam Party MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and his son Raghav Reddy; K. Kavitha, daughter of Telangana ex-CM K Chandrashekar Rao; and Aurobindo Pharma MD P. Sharath Reddy had sought a favourable policy change in exchange for a bribe.
Both AAP and TMC were new entrants in the 2022 Goa elections, contesting 39 and 26 constituencies, respectively. AAP had won two, while TMC had failed to secure a spot in the 40-seat assembly.
Sources in ED confirmed that both R. Kanti Lal and its employee Sagar are linked to both cases.
The agency’s raids on Jain’s and I-PAC’s premises were met with strong resistance from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has accused ED officials of stealing data and files related to her party.
The agency has in turn alleged that Banerjee interfered with the investigation, and took away key digital devices and incriminating files from the investigating officer. ED has prayed for a CBI probe into the incident in the writ petition pending before the Calcutta High Court.
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Common thread
In the writ petition, the agency has alleged that Patel, during questioning, led investigators to Akshay Kumar, who confessed to receiving cash in Goa via a hawala channel arranged by Pankaj Malik, the proprietor of ASM Event Technology.
Akshay was identified as an employee of the event management companies—Hertz and Pixelz, and ASM Event Technology—that managed events for I-PAC in Goa between 2021 and 2022.
ED has claimed that one Kolkata-based businessman, Jitender Mehta, assisted in transferring proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 20 crore through hawala from Kolkata to Goa for use by I-PAC in Goa.
These funds were routed through R. Kanti Lal and its employees, Sagar Patel and Alpesh Patel. Sagar has been identified as the firm’s employee in Goa, and Alpesh works in a similar role at the Kolkata office.
The firm was used to transfer funds amounting to Rs 44.54 crore from Delhi to Goa by AAP between June 2021 and January 2022, according to both CBI and ED.
In submissions before courts and their respective chargesheets in the excise policy case, the agencies have named Sagar as having provided funds to Prince Kumar, Chanpreet Singh and Rajiv Mondkar.
Prince and Chanpreet Singh were employed by Chariot Productions Media Private Limited, which managed the party’s campaign in Goa for the 2022 elections. Ashok Mondkar had allegedly been roped into the campaign by Chanpreet Singh, who was previously arrested by both CBI and ED. He is now out on bail.
Both CBI and ED have relied on the Income Tax Department’s searches at R. Kanti Lal’s Goa office, resulting in recovery of incriminating materials.
According to the ED, Prince was transferred Rs 16 lakh in cash by Sagar, while Chanpreet collected Rs 17.38 crore in cash in over 18 instances from the latter between June 2021 and January 2022. Mondkar, on the other hand, had collected funds amounting to Rs 27 crore from Sagar on approximately 16 occasions between June 2021 and December 2021.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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